Report: Mark Stoops joins Texas football staff as assistant to Steve Sarkisian
Former Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops has reportedly found his next job.
Texas has hired Stoops as a special assistant to head coach Steve Sarkisian, according to a report from Horns247.com.
Texas has previously employed longtime head coaches Paul Chryst, Gary Patterson and Neal Brown in a similar role after they were fired. Chryst served in that role in 2023 after being fired by Wisconsin. Patterson served in that role in 2022 after being fired by TCU.
Brown, the former Kentucky wide receiver who served as Stoops’ first offensive coordinator at UK, spent last season as a special assistant to Sarkasian at Texas after being fired by West Virginia. He was hired as the new head coach at North Texas in December.
Kentucky decided to fire Stoops, the program’s all-time winningest coach, after a second straight losing season in 2025. His contract originally called for his full $37.7 million buyout paid within 60 days of being fired, but Stoops agreed to have that payment spread out over five years instead.
UK paid him $3.94 million within 15 days of his firing. It will pay him $6.75 million per year in quarterly installments through April 2031. The terms of that buyout will not be affected by any salary Stoops draws from future coaching jobs.
“To all my former players, coaches, staffers and the Big Blue Nation, from the bottom of my heart, thank you,” Stoops wrote in a statement posted to X after he was fired. “Coaching at Kentucky the last 13 years has been one of the greatest honors of my life. I’ve felt your support, your pride and your love every single day. Kentucky has become my home, and I’ll be forever grateful to have been your head coach.”
At Texas, Stoops is likely to help manage the Longhorn defense but will not play an active role in recruiting or roster building.
Kentucky replaced Stoops by hiring former Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein.